You really can smell a rat. Recognizing a rodent’s natural “perfume” – think urine mixed with decay – was just one of the many tips given yes terday at the city’s advanced tactical training program for pest control.

Inspector Eric Han, 27, who has three years on the job, told of being chased by a rat down Second Avenue in the East Village after surprising the rodent in a trash can.

“They told me no one has gotten bitten yet. I hope I’m not the first,” he said.

New York City’s 26,000 food-service establishments are now coping with a Health Department inspection blitz.

Corrigan, 56, an East Flatbush native, told his students that the February “rats gone wild” incident at a Greenwich Village KFC/Taco Bell was the “shot heard around the world.”

And as they conduct exterior building inspections, the pest ed. students must spot pheromone-laden wall stains known as “rub” or “grease” marks left by rats to mark trails from their secret nests.

Likewise, rat droppings designate nearby food.

Urban pest management is a “complex, deep science,” Corrigan said. “The rat is actually capable of cognitive thinking. Rats can study a situation, look at two different choices and actually contemplate what is the better choice.”

For Cicelia Acevedo, 35, a 10-year veteran inspector, the toughest part of the job is coping with musophobia.

“I’m afraid of rodents. If I see them and they are standing still, I say, ‘OK, it’s a rat,’ but once they start moving around, I do get a little squeamish.”

There are other hazards to the job.

“One time, in a single’s bar in Long Island, I told a woman I killed rats in the sewer and she walked away,” Corrigan sighed ruefully. “The next time, I said I was a small-game hunter.”